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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 1, 2007


Felisha Legette-Jack

Sarah McKay

Kim Roberson


INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

COACH FELISHA LEGETTE-JACK: We're just honored to be here and we just hope we represent the Big Ten in a great light. Our team is very focused, we're going to overachieve all the way to the end, and I'm just really proud of them. I'm proud of them from yesterday, I'm proud of them today, and I'm proud of what they're going to do moving forward in this tournament. I thought it was a collective effort on our part, and we played as one. We were not going to be bigger, stronger and faster than any team possibly in this tournament, however, if we stay together, I think that we can continue to make good things happen for our program.
THE MODERATOR: Now questions for the student athletes.

Q. Could you talk about the offensive spark you gave the team in the first half and then again in the second half?
KIM ROBERSON: I was just fortunate enough to run the court. We talked all week about pushing the ball, and I was fortunate to attack and make things happen on the wings.

Q. Sarah, talk about the defensive game you guys played tonight. I know they scored a whole lot in your last game, but your defense tonight probably, as much as anything was key.
SARAH MCKAY: Our defense was all about talking, the way we move from position to position, letting each other know where we are on the court. When we talk, we're pretty good out there. We try and switch it up and try and take teams by surprise, and as long as we do our job, we can stop pretty much anyone.

Q. Sarah, you've got a chance tomorrow night to be going head to head with Jessica Davenport. What are your thoughts on that?
SARAH MCKAY: I go into every game the same way, play hard, do what I can and know my teammates are going to back me up. It's just another game, it just happens to be a big one, and we're just going to get the job done.

Q. Kim, good scoring, but talk about some of the little things you were doing, hustling, made that diving play right before the timeout, things like that, and as always, your defense?
KIM ROBERSON: Well, I'm going to always try to give my team whatever I can. The little things is hard, so I'm going to try to play with all that so our team is going to be on top in the end.

Q. Sarah, you've gotten off with a big lead of like 18 to 6, they have got back on you, and then Kim scored like seven, eight points in a row. Could you talk about the offensive spark she gave at that point to kind of give you guys some breathing room?
SARAH MCKAY: It's all about the momentum. Anyone on our team can step up at any time, and we've seen that all season long. Kim was feeling it and we knew she was so we tried to do what we could to get her the ball, give her the confidence and be there to rebound for her if she missed. It's all about momentum, and even when they start climbing their way back in, just keep taking it away.

Q. This is for both of you. This team scored 103 points five days ago. You guys held them to half of that. Can you talk a little bit about what your mindset was defensively to be able to shut them down as well as you did?
KIM ROBERSON: We come in every game, our staple is our defense. We try to hold our teams to 59 points. Our defense creates offense, so we were lucky to stop people and be in the right positions. As Sarah said, we communicated very well tonight.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, ladies. Now questions for Coach Jack.

Q. Coach, they shot 11 three-point shots before they finally made one. What was working well for you guys defensively that wasn't allowing them to make these three-point shots?
COACH FELISHA LEGETTE-JACK: The first time we played them, we realized we stood around and stayed in one defense too long, and what we tried to do was put them on their heels a little bit by changing up the defense, whether it was just a small tweak or a major change in the defense, and that created them to think a little bit longer, and then when they had to take the shot, the clock was ticking and it was a little bit more duress.

Q. I know you said you were excited to get back to the tournament after beating Michigan State before, so talk about what kind of nerves did you have tonight?
COACH FELISHA LEGETTE-JACK: Just excitement. I love this time of year. You know, ever since I was a kid March just did something for me. I love the game of basketball, and just to be a part of competing in March is really exciting to me. The Big Ten is first class, and when we were here four, five years ago with Michigan State and we were trying to build a program then, I just really wanted to be a part of it a little bit longer than the one game that we played them. And I hoped that I'd have this opportunity, and God blessed me with an opportunity to be the head coach here and we got to a second game here. My cup overflows. I just really want to continue to represent Indiana in the Big Ten in a first class way.

Q. I thought Shanice had a very good solid point guard game tonight, dishing out, playing her role? Can you talk about her improvements in the season until now?
COACH FELISHA LEGETTE-JACK: Shanice has been almost -- it's been brewing. You know how you have something brewing and it's not quite done yet? She said to me at the beginning of the year that she's going to help us get to postseason, and I kept reminding her of that and she kind of kept coming to the edge and not flying, and it was really neat that we went to her early and she came to the edge and she kind of flew.
Now she realizes that she actually was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Connecticut and she can actually play this game of basketball. We hope this wasn't a fluke; we hope she can bring it again tomorrow.

Q. How important is it that some of the players that you have here made the semis last year, had some success going into a game against a team that's so highly ranked?
COACH FELISHA LEGETTE-JACK: I don't know about last year's team. I certainly was on the East Coast and I don't want to take any credit for what happened last year. Our team this year, we're going to stay in the moment. We're going to believe everybody is great. We're certainly not going to fear anybody, though. We always talk about the game of basketball is a microcosm of life, and if you go in there with a sense of fear you're going to get what you deserve that's nothing or half of what you probably should have gotten. So we're going to take away fear. We're going to go and represent us as best we can and we're going to respect Coach Foster and what he's done, and we just hope we can go out there and play good basketball and make it a good game.

Q. You've talked several times this year about anybody can do anything for you on any given night. Nikki did not score tonight, Jamie didn't seem like she had one of her usual games, but you had the players that did come through. Is this as good of an example of that as you've had this year?
COACH FELISHA LEGETTE-JACK: Yeah, that's my example of -- I don't believe in go-to players. If Jamie and Nikki were our go-to players and they don't have a good night we'd pack our bags and go. On any given night anybody can emerge and be someone special. We take that lid off everybody and say it's your time to fly, you have to go out there and try, just do that, go out there and try to fly. I thought Sarah did a great job, and Whitney, her rebounds will never indicate how hard she works and how much she means to our program, but she goes out there and gives us everything she can give us.
And Kim coming off the bench was just amazing for us to see. A kid that -- I just have a lot of respect for Kim. I thought she got a little bit overlooked and I think this is a time where she can show our conference how good she can possibly be.

Q. Talk a little bit about that bench play you got today.
COACH FELISHA LEGETTE-JACK: I don't believe in the bench, I believe that we have eight players. We can't start eight, so we have to play -- our walk-on came in and gave some incredible minutes. Kim did a great job, and Leah and Nikki had to come off the bench in the second half, and they became bench players if you look at it that way. And I thought Leah gave some attack mode down the stretch that really gave us a little bit more energy. We're just the elite eight, and we're going to continue to ride this train until the wheels fall off.

Q. No ties, no allegiance in this game, so is that what you thought, you've got to get up ahead and stay ahead?
COACH FELISHA LEGETTE-JACK: No. We say don't ever look up at the score, have the passion, lay on that floor and when you walk in the locker room, just look in the mirror and let yourself know if you gave it all you got, and if you didn't -- if we get blessed for tomorrow, then you can bring something extra tomorrow. But the score really don't matter right now; it's about how hard you work.
I've got some great assistance coaches, they need to watch the score, they need to look where the rhythm is coming, whether we have to make a timeout, make some adjustments, but the kids just have to play basketball and play as free as they can.

Q. Coach, you seemed to do a better job on the defensive glass in the second half. Can you just comment on that?
COACH FELISHA LEGETTE-JACK: I thought our kids were boxing out but they were boxing out on the wrong side. They were boxing out on the side where the shot was coming from, and the weak side glass was wide open and they were able to sneak in there and get some opportunities.
We made that adjustment in the second half. Lo and behold, the coach kind of knew what she was talking about and those rebounds came to us. So they fought both halves, they just had to change their thought process a little bit.

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